EDCOM II chief to speak at UP Visayas education summit

The executive director of the Second Congressional Commission on Education will headline a national education conference at the University of the Philippines Visayas on July 24 and 25, six months after the commission submitted its final report to Malacañang.

Dr. Karol Mark R. Yee will deliver a plenary session on the country’s ongoing education reforms at Education Summit 2026, held at the Graduate and Continuing Education Building Training Rooms.

Registration for the summit reached the venue’s 110-seat capacity days before the opening rites, according to organizers.

Those registered include educators, researchers, school leaders, graduate students, guidance practitioners, and education advocates from across the Philippines, drawn from both the basic and higher education sectors.

Organizers said the response reflects growing interest among educators in evidence-informed policy, transformative teaching, and collaborative educational leadership.

The two-day summit carries the theme “Reimagining Philippine Education: Equity, Innovation, and Transformative Learning.”

It is organized by the UP Visayas Master of Education Alumni Association in partnership with the UP Visayas Division of Professional Education and the Mathematics Teachers Association of the Philippines-Iloilo Chapter.

Education Summit 2026 forms part of UP Visayas Homecoming Week, which brings together alumni, educators, professionals, students, and partners through scholarly, cultural, and community engagement activities across the campus.

Yee is expected to discuss the latest findings of the Second Congressional Commission on Education, known as EDCOM II, and their implications for educational leadership, curriculum improvement, equity, innovation, and evidence-based decision-making.

The commission released its final report, “Turning Point: A Decade of Necessary Reform (2026-2035),” on Jan. 26, and formally turned it over to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. days later.

That report documented what the commission described as a proficiency collapse that deepens as students move through the system, with learner proficiency falling from 30.52 percent at Grade 3 to 0.47 percent by Grade 12.

It also cited Philippine Statistics Authority data showing that 70.8 percent of Filipinos aged 10 to 64 are functionally literate.

Congress has since extended the commission’s mandate to December 2027 under a measure sponsored by Sen. Loren Legarda, allowing EDCOM II to monitor the rollout of its ten-year National Education and Workforce Development Plan.

Iloilo figures directly in that plan’s evidence base.

In a Senate basic education committee hearing on March 3, EDCOM II commended the Iloilo provincial government for raising Grade 3 reading proficiency to 90 percent within a year through a proof-of-concept partnership with the Synergeia Foundation and the Department of Education across 11 municipalities.

Sen. Bam Aquino, who chairs the panel and co-chairs the commission, said the body was studying how to bring the Iloilo model to other local governments.

Joining Yee at the summit is Prof. Early Sol A. Gadong, the 28th faculty regent of the University of the Philippines System, whose work spans educational leadership, mathematics education, research, literature, and community engagement.

Gadong, who teaches at the UP High School in Iloilo under the UP Visayas Division of Professional Education, is expected to share perspectives on transformative learning, inclusive education, and the evolving role of educators in shaping a more responsive Philippine education system.

The second-day plenary will open with a keynote by UP Visayas Chancellor Clement C. Camposano on higher education, citizenship, curriculum, and transformative leadership.

Beyond the three plenary speakers, the summit will feature concurrent and seminar-workshop sessions led by speakers from universities and education institutions across the country.

Those sessions will cover educational game-based learning, curriculum innovation, intellectual property in educational materials, educational leadership, transformative learning, innovative teaching, and current policy directions affecting Philippine education.

The first day centers on the Educational Game Conference and Seminar-Workshop, examining how gamification, creativity, community knowledge, and educational technology can enrich classroom practice.

The second day shifts to education policy and research, with participants breaking into three parallel tracks on transformative learning, educational leadership, and innovative teaching.

Organizers said the summit is intended less as a conference than as a venue where educators from different regions and disciplines can exchange research, learn from one another’s experiences, and build partnerships extending beyond the two days.

The event has drawn endorsements from the Department of Education Regional Office VI, the Regional Association of State Universities and Colleges VI, and several schools division offices and higher education institutions across Western Visayas. (UPVMEAA)